Thanks for this very thought-provoking thread, Boleo - whether or not this particular poor young guy had actually relapsed or not, I tend to also notice this kind of dynamic in a few recovering people(based on my own limited experience around recovery communities / fellowships these past few years). And I think that Endgame laid that phenomenon out very vividly.
It's downright scary, in my experience - seen it a quite a number of times in the rooms, in rehabs and yes, in my own thinking when it gets too distorted. 'A kind of mania', as EG put it, is an image that has also struck me too. I'm quite wary of it now, in myself. I love EG's first sponsor's wise saying.